Do you live in Florida and are having a custom?

[turtle51]

I've been on the boards for some time now and ive seen many who talk about weddings at disney and I was wondering how many of you actually live in Florida. I live in california and its a long ride but would love to have it there. Any info or suggestions. Those who do live on the west coast does it seem hard to get family to travel to come to your wedding?

 

[jamie0201]

Hi there...

I am not from the West Coast, but from the Midwest - Chicago. I am originally from South Florida. We had a Custom wedding on March 26 of this year. We invited approx. 175 people, and had approx 100 come to the wedding. What I have found with planning out of state and so far away, was if you plan at a good time of year - unlike us (we had our wedding spring break/easter weekend), you will have a better turn out. It was very hard for people to travel at the time of year we got married b/c airline tickets were sooo expensive. We were told by many of my DH's family, they could not come b/c of the money and time of year - the wedding was mainly all of my family (who lived in Florida), but we did have quite a few who traveled too. Unfortuanely, with our schedules we didnt have a choice and couldnt play with the dates too much, unless we wanted to wait a lot longer to get married - which we didnt... If you are open to your date, I would look into choosing a reasonable time of year for flights, etc... if you want a large turn-out.

Hope this helps
Jamie

 

[Equidae]

I live in central Florida and we are having a custom DFTW wedding later this year. I have found it fairly easy to go to Disney to plan or meet with vendors for a day, since it's just a short drive. One thing I am concerned about is the room requirements. With so many family already living here, I don't think too many people will be staying more than a night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary

 

[fynook12]

I live in Miami,FL. I am also having a custom wedding. March 27, 2006. Although now i'm a little concerned about the time since Jamie had so many no-shows!!l But we'll see. I am just finishing my own save the date's that I will be sending out this week. I figure if you give people a 10 month notice, most of them should be able to make it! Were about a 4hr drive from Disney. So, i'll be going there for the planning session. I'm actually heading there in one month for a site visit! Can't wait for that!!!

 

[J&L Love Disney]

I don't live on the west coast, but in Baton Rouge, LA and we are having a Custom Renewal in December 2005. We are inviting about 50-60 people. We are about a 11 hour drive and a 1 1/2 hour flight away, so it's not too hard on our most of our guests to come. However, we do have guests from Chicago, Dallas, southern California and South Carolina coming -

I don't know if it is more difficult because you are in California. It will just be a longer flight for your guests. If you aren't nearby Orlando than the planning is just about the same for someone in California, Chicago or Baton Rouge. Just the flights would be longer and there would be connections and changing planes. Of course it would cost more to fly also.

As jamie0201 stated, if you pick the right time of the year, more people will come. Our date is Friday, December 16. That is the Friday before Christmas week so it is a great time to get people to take off. Also it is the last week of value season so we are getting great rates on hotels, tickets, etc. Our minimums for wedding spending and reception rental are lower than normal because of the time of year.

Lisa

 

[cryssi]

My FH and I were originally planning a WDW extravaganza at the WP and MK...

...but, being as we are from CA and close to our family (also all from CA), among other things, we had to abandon our dream of WDW if we wanted family to attend...

HOWEVER! we are now having our FTW at the Disneyland Resort. So, still Mickey! It's not quite the same, but we are able to have the best of both worlds, our nearest and dearest and Disney.

Good luck! I have to say that I just ADORE the wedding pavilion...it gives me goosebumps...

c

 

[J&L Love Disney]

A Disneyland wedding sounds exciting!!!

I grew up in southern California so I visited DL about 100000000 times. However we did visit last year and it was fantastic. Things had changed so much. The hotels were beautiful. I bet you will be able to get some fantastic pictures.

Have a fantastic special day! Lisa

 

[jamie0201]

FYNOOK12 - I sent you a PM.

Jamie

 

[BensMom]

Hi,

I am moving to Celebration, FL but live in sofla now. Most of my future DH's family is from Western New York and my "family" (friends) will come from Beantown. They will attend! Of course, we are only having just shy of 50! We have picked May 19, 2006. I have been to all their weddings, some of whom twice over! Payback is a b>>>>tch!!!!

 

[turtle51]

My FH and I were originally planning a WDW extravaganza at the WP and MK...

...but, being as we are from CA and close to our family (also all from CA), among other things, we had to abandon our dream of WDW if we wanted family to attend...

HOWEVER! we are now having our FTW at the Disneyland Resort. So, still Mickey! It's not quite the same, but we are able to have the best of both worlds, our nearest and dearest and Disney.

Good luck! I have to say that I just ADORE the wedding pavilion...it gives me goosebumps...

c

I might sound silly but what is a FTW. Do you feel that Disneyland was more expensive than Disneyworld? Do you have many choices for Disneyland? Ive tried to look for info but i just cant find much.

 

[JohnsPrincess]

Well, FTW is Fairly Tale Wedding. But I don't know the rest because I'm not from Cali!

I'm from Tampa and we are having a Custom (we are living in Kuwait now). I'm slightly worried about the room requirement. A lot of our friends/family are from Tampa.

 

[cryssi]

I might sound silly but what is a FTW. Do you feel that Disneyland was more expensive than Disneyworld? Do you have many choices for Disneyland? Ive tried to look for info but i just cant find much.

It depends what you want. In Florida, you can have an Intimate for relatively little money (Disney-wise, anyway!) from what I've been reading here. The minimums vary at Disneyland but here you can have a wedding in the Rose Court Garden at the Disneyland Hotel, and a reception in one of the hotels for about what you'd spend at a nice non-disney hotel (100 or more guests if you like). Their website has more info:

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/dlr/weddings/index

You can also go meet with a sales manager to discuss options and take a site tour! It's pretty informative and should help you make a decision.

Good luck!

c